The dance of MURMURATION manifests celestial breath, and it is the breath that leads us to places.

Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of birds spontaneously come together in flight creating an ephemeral form that soon breathes into another expanding form. In & out, in & out. The individual birds do not collide, all the while sensing their ever-changing relationships and air drafts.

NASA studies attribute this phenomenon of group flight without colliding to each bird’s awareness of 7 adjacent birds. So, within these large flocks, each bird is paying attention to the whereabouts of 7.

Imagine exercising this practice of paying attention to the position and welfare of 7 things, be they people, animals, plants, whatever. Notice the actual and sensed physical and mental space in between the chosen things. You become a murmuration. In & out, in & out.

The wings of MURMURATION carried the message, ‘Don’t edit, welcome movement and connect with gratitude in being part of the process.’

Jessica de Haas(BC) will be teaching a Felt Fashion workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico again this winter. A beautiful destination, rich in textile culture, plus a great instructor!

Jessica joins instructor Eric Chavez Santiago, founding director of education at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca and weaver and natural dye expert, who will be giving an indigo dyeing demonstration one morning.

Christina Norberg, a visual artist based in Vancouver, BC, is exhibiting her first solo show at the Britannia Art Gallery until January 3rd, 2014.

Christina works in mixed media, combining post-consumer materials, such as cardboard packaging, newspaper, magazines, and clothing, as well as natural materials such as wood and wool.

Christina describes the inspiration for this exhibiton here, from her website:

“This series of work explores where the physical landscape and the emotional landscape meet.Spaces/places are contained, collected, and remembered. Kept in the back of our minds, and our hearts. Carried around with us, affecting us. Once the outside enters the inside, a metamorphosis happens. Both are changed forever.

Living in a place such as Vancouver, I find myself drawn in and out of urban and more nature-dominated environments. They are both a part of me. This work contemplates a world where the man-made and the organic might coexist in more integrated way.

My influences are many. From street art, architecture, textiles, and technology to the oceans, forests, and even bacteria, I find these sources have common elements that become synthesized within my work.These mixed-media paintings are created by layering my own photography with paint, drawings, collage on paper mache and wood. Felted wool elements further add to the sculptural, textural feel of these pieces.”

Knotty by Nature in Victoria, BC, run a great range of felting workshops throughout the year.
Included in their 2014 lineup:
Needle felting Awesomeness:
January 4th, February 1st, March 1st, 10:00-12:00
Intro to Wet felting: January 25th, 1-3 PM
Nuno Felting: January 18th, February 15th, March 15th, April 19th
Wet Felt a Hat: February 23rd, 12:30pm – 4:30pm
Wet felt a Vessel: February 2nd, 12:30pm – 3:30pm

felt :: feutre is a juried exhibition of the finest contemporary felt work being created by Canadian fibre artists.

This exhibit showcased work that is new, fresh, challenging, visually exciting, and dynamic. Work that gives the artist and viewer an opportunity to stretch their perception, through the use of the medium or the concept/narrative presented. Work that represents the highest qualities of technical execution, and artistic /design sensibilities.

The goal of this exhibit was to create a national collection that is representative of contemporary feltwork in its multitude of forms, created by Canadian fibre artists.

We received an amazing array of felt pieces from all across Canada- over a hundred in total. Such a collection of beautifully crafted felt pieces to build into a single unified wave of felt. Fibre shops like Knotty by Nature and Stitches got involved, hosting felting drop-in days to make pieces for the event, plus we received packages from schools and weaving and spinning guilds who got together to make work for the wave. The felt wave was constructed over the Mount Maxwell coffee pod, whose delicious brews kept the felters fueled all through felt::feutre.

a selection of pieces we received for the wave….

We had all of the beautiful work, but unfortunately not the beautiful weather to make the assembly simple. Appropriately given the theme of water, it poured rain on us during our main construction days- an unusual weather pattern in the form of an arctic storm that hit our area, blowing down power lines and stopping the ferries. And yet somehow so appropriate to keep us focussed on this element- we could not keep water from our minds most of the weekend! And through it all, the felt wave stayed strong!

The end result could have felt more unified artistcally, under better conditions, but it could not have have been improved upon in the unifying sensibility of feltmakers working together to create something bigger as a single collaborative force. Every piece of felt we received was attached to the wave, washing over the coffee pod from two directions.

Every part of this wave of felt was constructed with the theme of water in the forefront! It was a pleasure to gather these felt pieces, to think of each feltmaker and their part of this country as we stitched them in place, and now to deconstruct and either return them or make into something special for another community affected by water this year. We’ll be turning the remaining felt pieces into a new creation for the Waldorf Kindergarten in Boulder, Colorado, whose building was devastated by the flooding they experienced this September.

Thank you to everyone who participated in creating this wave of Canadian Felt!

The Madeleines is a series of thirteen sculptural, felted dresses made for the use of historical figures and their imaginary engagement in athletic activity such as hockey, boxing, rugby, fencing, baseball, croquet and one referee.

“Pleurer comme une Madeleine” or to “cry like a Madeleine” is to cry inconsolably. These Madeleines no longer cry: they are happy, finally to get the chance to participate in the game. They lift up their padded, armored, felted skirts with their gloves to step out onto the ice, the field, the rink.

Gaius Plinius Secundus, or Pliny the Elder, [23-79 A.D.], Roman author of the “Natural History” said that wool felt treated with vinegar would resist iron and fire. The Madeleines are like that too, made of the strongest stuff : like Boadecia, for example.

Early on in my felt exploration for the Brassiere Quilt Series [1992-2000], and Felted Sleeping Bag Series [2000-2002], I decided on a combination of silk and merino wool fibres, because of its pliability, softness, skin like texture, and openness to receive other elements. For The Madeleines old lace and bits of brassieres cut in stylistic leaf shape, make a renaissance in the Madeleine’s felted dresses and sport equipment. These ultra-feminine elements make the felt stronger, and the Madeleines wearing this felted armor feel more substantial. It is a subtle strength not obvious to the viewer.

The Referee is the last in this series of 13 felted sculpural dresses. I started the Madeleine series in 2003 and completed this series in March of 2013. The first personalities in the Madeleine series are Hayley Wickenheiser and Isobel Stanley to representing Hockey. To complete this series I decided the last personality in history, joining the rest of the Madeleines, would be Emily Carr as Referee. The Referee stands alone.